New charges of "money laundering" in CA campaigns

California may not be a swing state, but we’ve still seen plenty of money flowing to political campaigns this election season.

On Monday, state propositions took center stage, as the Mercury-News reported the unveiling of a mystery group that may have laundered $11 million – the largest anonymous donation for a ballot measure in state history. The money went to fight Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Prop. 30 tax hike to fund education and to support Prop. 32, which would limit labor unions' ability to collect political contributions.

Under a court order, an Arizona-based group called Americans for Responsible Leadership conceded that they were merely an intermediary for the big-dollar donation, which actually came from a group called “Americans for Job Security.” Americans for Job Security first made the donation through a group called the Center to Protect Patient Rights - linked to prolific Republican donors David and Charles Koch – which in turn donated the money to the Arizona group.

The real donor, Americans for Job Security, is described as “pro-Republican” and “pro-business,” and has been around since the mid-1990s.

"This isn't going to stop here," Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, said in the Merucry-News article. "They admitted to money laundering. We agreed to do this without an audit because we wanted to get information to the public before the election."

After this latest twist in campaign funding, here’s a rundown of the most recent Federal Election Commission filings available showing the money flowing from Silicon Valley to 2012 campaigns, courtesy of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

- Donors in San Mateo County and Santa Clara County are neck and neck, with contributors in each county donating more than $21 million

- In Santa Clara County, donors are leaning farther left, with $11.5 million going to Democratic causes and $4.8 million going to Republican campaigns

- In San Mateo County, $9.6 million has gone to Democrats while $6.2 million has gone to Republicans

- Menlo Park and Atherton are the area's top zipcodes, donating $4.7 million and $4.1 million, respectively